


An Appreciation for Formality

by hamburger666



Category: RWBY
Genre: Cute Kids, F/F, First Meetings, Monochrome, Politics, heiresses abound
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-20 22:17:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14903126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hamburger666/pseuds/hamburger666
Summary: Blake’s first time in Atlas is...more interesting than expected. Mostly involves preteens shooting glances and blushing at each other.





	An Appreciation for Formality

**Author's Note:**

> I'd consider the girls to be 12 or so in this story? They still crazy stylish tho. Takes place not long after Winter leaves for the military. A bit of an AU.

Blake sighed again, tugging at the crisp white shirt tucked into her pants. She knew this was important – her mother had made her practice endlessly, proper standing, proper greetings, proper forks and knives and spoons and everything in between. But Atlas was cold, her jacket was itchy, and she just wanted to go back to the hotel and finish the new book her father had gotten her, special for their trip. 

“Blake.” A rumbled warning from her father interrupted her thoughts, and she turned back to the door of the conference room of Atlas’s capitol building. They were meeting the Schnees, who controlled the biggest company in all of Remnant. According to her father, the Schnees were not kind to the faunus who worked for them and that was what he intended to change. Blake’s job, as the heir to Menagerie, was to watch and listen. 

As it turned out, simply watching and listening was harder than it sounded. 

Everything seemed to happen all of a sudden. The door swung open and Blake was rooted to the spot in front of the most intimidating man she had ever seen. Around her and her father, a whole retinue of servants busied themselves with coffee and tea. _Frozen_ was the only way to describe what she felt as those icy blue eyes swept over her and narrowed as they met her father’s steady gaze. 

She remembered to bow when Ghira laid his heavy hand on her shoulder, doing the same.

“Hello, Jacques.” Her father’s tone sounded…different. Almost friendly, but there was something else underneath that made Blake feel nervous. Still, she managed to straighten her shoulders and raise her chin as her father gestured toward her. “This is Blake, my daughter and the heir to Menagerie.”

“Ghira, Blake.” An imitation of a smile was directed her way. “Welcome to Atlas. I’m pleased to introduce my own heir, Weiss.”

Blake frowned, confused, as she finally noticed the slight girl standing next to Jacques, scowling at something above Blake's head. The girl didn’t look nearly as old as she had expected. And wasn’t the heir’s name…Winter? _It doesn’t matter,_ she concluded as her father turned and greeted Weiss warmly. Although the scowl never dropped, Weiss curtsied quite prettily.

As Ghira led them to the conference table, Blake kept her eyes on Weiss. The girl was wearing a formal-looking white dress, covered in intricately-designed buttons and what seemed to be miles of lace. Actually, she was white from head to toe, her hair, jacket, tights, and shoes all fitting the bill. Quite striking, really. It was during her consideration of the pointed heels that Blake heard a tight cough and glanced up to see Weiss's scowl now directed at her. Feeling her human ears heat up, Blake hurriedly turned toward the front of the room where a presentation about the Schnee Dust Company played as everyone settled into their seats. 

The presentation was…long. Her mother had already explained most of this to her before Blake and her father had left Menagerie, and though she had struggled a bit with the more scientific aspects of dust manufacturing, she seemed to have retained enough to make this a little too familiar. By the time the presentation finished and Jacques began to talk, her attention was wandering again. 

Blake braved another look at Weiss, wondering if the girl felt as bored as she did. Instead, Weiss was sitting up straight, listening to her father with rapt attention. Weiss’s eyes were the same color as Jacques’s, but somehow seemed to be less cold. She looked proud, watching her father drone on about the safety of the workers in the mines.

 _We’ll have to work together someday,_ Blake realized as her own father provided counterpoints. _I should know what kind of person she is. That’s a good reason to look, right?_

Oh.

Apparently, Weiss was the kind of person who noticed quiet faunus girls mooning at her. This time, she met Blake’s eyes, chin and eyebrows lifting in a way that could only be described as haughty. Blake could only blink, absently observing that Weiss’s cheeks were coloring even as she rolled her eyes and turned back to her meeting notes.

 _Notes, that’s smart._ Blake herself hadn’t even opened her notebook. She did so now, resolving to focus on the negotiations rather than continue to make a fool of herself. Blake managed to keep her head down for the rest of the meeting, scribbling furiously in her notebook and actively trying not to think about the heiress across the room.

* * *

Weiss sighed appreciatively as Ghira called for a break. Normally, she wouldn’t approve of her father letting a _faunus_ control the meeting, but today she felt…restless. As the tension in the conference room lifted and the buzz of voices started to rise, she made her way quietly out the door and down the hall. 

_Being the heir isn't so difficult,_ Wiess considered, meandering toward the restroom. Her sister’s absence still weighed on her, but she wasn’t necessarily unhappy about the increase in responsibility and recognition. Today, though, the presentation had been long, and the conversations had seemed to prefer to jog in circles rather than in a direction that resembled anything close to progress. But something was making the meeting tolerable, and Weiss suspected it may have been that faunus girl—why wouldn't she stop staring?

Yes, Blake was staring and Weiss couldn’t figure out why. She _was_ young, but Blake should have been about the same age, so it couldn’t be that. She had double-triple-quadruple checked her outfit and her hair in the mirror this morning (and Klein had checked again), so she didn’t think it was that, either. Perhaps the creature wasn’t aware of how to conduct herself in a formal setting? But she had bowed properly, Weiss admitted to herself with only a hint of a glower, and she was dressed well, besides. _Really_ well. The faunus girl had dark hair, almost the same color as her well-fitted suit, and the combination of the two drew attention to her magnificent gold eyes. If Weiss was being honest with herself, the whole look together was really quite striking.

Honestly, she conceded as she pushed open the restroom door, if she were the one dressing Blake, she might only change—

Ah. Blake was there. Blake was there, in the restroom. Mirroring her look of surprise. Mirroring the heat on her face, too.

“Uhm—,” Blake started and stopped. “I…you look really nice. In your dress, I mean.”

Weiss couldn't help it, really. She smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> wassup ya'll this is my first fanfic please tell me u love it ok bye 
> 
> my gf said it was "too haughty" so let me know what u think of that pfft


End file.
